The present invention relates to the field of telematics, namely to the field of integrating information, communication, computing and entertainment technologies into vehicles for civilian or military use. The invention particularly relates to safety control systems for vehicles for avoiding potentially dangerous conditions tending to produce accidents.
One potentially dangerous condition is the use of a vehicle telephone by the vehicle driver while driving the vehicle. The use of telematics in general and particularly cellular telephones by drivers while driving has been found to increase the possibility of an accident since such a telephone not only diverts the driver""s attention from driving, but also generally requires the use of at least one of the driver""s hands and distract the driver""s eyes from the road and traffic. In fact, many states and countries have enacted legislation requiring that telephones used in vehicles by drivers while driving must be of the xe2x80x9chands freexe2x80x9d type and usually telematics equipment carries a warning to educate and discourage the driver about the risk of using while driving. However, such legislation is difficult to enforce and education is not usually effective in assuring driver compliance. Moreover, even where the vehicle is equipped with a xe2x80x9chands freexe2x80x9d telephone, drivers nevertheless still frequently use one hand for holding or dialing the telephone. When one hand is occupied by holding a telephone, the danger of causing an accident in an emergency situation is increased because of the additional reaction time required to properly grip the steering wheel with both hands.
There are other potentially dangerous conditions and inherent risks in driving that depends on the driving act itself, such as accelerating, decelerating, excessive maneuvering, merging to or exiting a freeway, passing, changing lanes, changing gears, depressing the clutch, high speed, negotiating a turn, braking, reverse-driving, or a stress condition on the part of the driver, which could increase the possibility of an accident should the driver be distracted by the telephone. This inherent risk is also dependent on the driving purpose as well, for example, the risk in driving a police cruiser is inherently riskier then in driving a sedan, and driving a delivery van has different risk than driving the family van.
Herbert et al., U.S. Pat. No. 6,188,315 and Brown, U.S. Pat. No. 6,353,778, disclose systems for avoiding preset potentially dangerous conditions while operating a vehicle having a vehicle telephone, but the systems described in those patents are of relatively limited application, and do not provide for avoiding dangerous conditions or to managing risk and individualizing the warnings to individual driving skills or application and to combinations of events and environmental conditions.
An object of the present invention is to provide a safety control system for vehicles tending to reduce the possibility of accidents in one or more of the above respects. Another object of the invention is to provide a method of avoiding potentially dangerous conditions while operating a vehicle.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a safety control system for vehicles including a telephone and sensor means for sensing a potentially dangerous condition and for automatically disabling the telephone when sensing such condition; characterized in that the sensor means includes two sensors mounted on a steering member to be gripped by the two hands of the driver of the vehicle and effective to suspend use of the telephone when the two hands of the driver are not sensed as gripping the steering member while the vehicle is in motion. This system is modular, dynamic, interactive, and adaptive to each individualized user. The invention employs a method for automated machine prioritizing to provide assistance the to driver and to optimize the functionality of telematics features accessibility by arranging them according to a user""s needs and preferences in the operation based on usage frequency of individual features and/or application or as customized individually by the user preferences, skills and events.
According to further features in the described preferred embodiment, the steering member is a steering wheel, and the sensor means includes two sensors on opposite sides of the steering wheel located to sense the proper gripping of the steering wheel by the two hands of the driver. Preferably, the two sensors are located approximately on or between the xe2x80x9ctwoxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9ctenxe2x80x9d and the xe2x80x9cthreexe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cninexe2x80x9d clock positions of the steering wheel.
It will thus be seen that such a system, requiring both hands to be on the steering wheel in order for the driver to operate the telephone/telematics, not only requires the vehicle to be equipped with a xe2x80x9chands freexe2x80x9d telephone/telematics system, or a telephone/telematics system that can be used as such with an adapter or when docked to the system gateway, but also enforces the use of the xe2x80x9chands freexe2x80x9d feature by sensing that the driver actually has both hands placed on the steering member before the telephone or other telematics can be operated. Disabling the operation of the telephone would preferably include not only disabling making outgoing and receiving incoming telephone calls, but also disabling the ringing signal of an incoming call since such a ringing signal could be particularly distracting to the driver in a critical situation.
According to further features in the described preferred embodiment, the vehicle may also include a computer or the driver may also use a portable multi-function telematics device in the vehicle allowing access to the Internet for transmitting and/or receiving faxes or e-mail or browsing the web or accessing a WAN, the sensor means also disabling driver initiated access when the two hands of the driver are not sensed as gripping the steering member while the vehicle is in motion.
In most cases, the steering member would be a steering wheel as presently included in conventional vehicles. However, in certain applications the steering member could be a joystick, or other type of steering member. In such case, the sensors are placed in areas a driver is recommended or required to grip the steering member to safely control the vehicle.
According to further optional features in the preferred embodiment of the invention described below, the sensor means may further include means for sensing accelerating, decelerating, merging to or exiting a freeway, passing, changing lanes, changing gears, depressing the clutch a reverse-drive condition of the vehicle, the braking of the vehicle, the undue proximity of the vehicle to another vehicle, excessive maneuvering, and/or an unduly high velocity of the vehicle, any one of which conditions, or combination of conditions, may also be effective to disable the operation of the telephone, computer, or other potentially distracting equipment within the vehicle.
According to still further optional features in the preferred embodiment of the invention described below, at least one of the sensors on the steering member also senses a physiological condition of the driver and disables the telephone when a predetermined physiological condition is sensed. For example, the physiological conditions sensed could be a predetermined gripping force applied by a hand of the driver while gripping the steering wheel, or a predetermined pulse rate, temperature, blood pressure, and/or skin conductivity of the driver. Such physiological condition may indicate a stress condition of the driver and, when sensed, disable the incoming operation of the telephone so as not to aggravate the stressed condition.
The system may also include means for indicating a drowsiness condition. For example, the system may include a steering direction sensor which actuates a drowsiness alarm when sensing a failure to change the steering direction within a predetermined time, distance interval while accounting for vehicle speed in indicating a possible drowsiness condition in the driver. Additionally, such sensor when monitored with respect to changes over time will indicate jerk reaction, which indicates that the driver was not paying attention and the system will temporarily suspend all telematics to give the driver a chance to recover. Another application for such a sensor is the monitoring of an OFF Zero angle for an extended period of time/distance which can indicate a blind curve or hard curve, and again, here the system will temporarily suspend telematics of all functions from interacting with the driver and vice versa until normal driving functions are restored.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of avoiding potentially dangerous conditions while operating a vehicle having a telephone and a steering mechanism including a steering member to be manipulated by the driver, comprising: providing the steering member with two sensors for sensing the gripping of the steering member by the two hands of the driver; and disabling the telephone when the two sensors fail to sense the gripping of the steering member by both hands of the driver while the vehicle is in motion.
According to further features in the described preferred embodiment, the telephone may also be disabled when the vehicle is traveling in the reverse direction, or is being braked, or is within a predetermined proximity of another vehicle, or is traveling at a high velocity accelerating, decelerating, merging to or exiting a freeway, passing, changing lanes, changing gears, depressing the clutch, or a driver is occupied using other accessories in the vehicle. Since a high degree of attention of the driver is required under all the foregoing conditions, operation of the vehicle telephone, even the ringing signal of an incoming telephone call, could be highly distracting to the driver and is therefore disabled to avoid the possibility of increasing the risk of an accident.
Further features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the description below.